Bryan and I just got back from a conference of "Emerging Artist Communities" with the Alliance for Artist Communities. It is always a great thing to bump shoulders with other people who have a similar mission. Although the presentations were the things that were most helpful I was grateful for the generous spirit that all of my "peers" had regarding their given projects. They ranged from a tiny cabin in the woods to a newly established residency in Morocco to even one young lady who had just inherited a farm and was trying to figure out what to do with it.

These are the birthplaces of artist residencies.

But with the variety of locations, size, or mission we all had a common vision, even passion. To help the artist.

But the wisdom gained in these session was priceless. Bryan and I came home with a few things to tweak, a new direction regarding non-profit status, and countless more tidbits I won't bore you with. But a few things that made me smile...

1. Seeing others of like mind convinced me that I wasn't insane... or that they were.

2. In regard to sharing the location of our retreat and saying the word "Bahamas", we always got a positive reaction. (who would't want to go to the bahamas?)

3. Learning that creating an artist community is different in every location and that is OK. It is organic in nature and therefore can not be based on a formula or set of rules to develop it. Sure there are basics that makes sense but what I came away with was a strong sense of encouragement that things will unfold as they should, that our instincts for our center are bang-on and that each step along the way reveals the next.

4. Partnerships are being developed with art organizations and artists (more to come)

What are we doing on the island?

Filming for a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. Like most artists, we are normal people, and that means for a project this large we need help to bring it to light in order to share this facility with others.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Yup.

So we are telling our story in pictures by filming the land where the retreat will be, while explaining the project. This will ultimately be our Kickstarter promotion.

Here we are setting up the gear after hiking it down our property to the beach. Nice view huh? (not me, the beach!)

This visit we checked our tree plantings and although didn't seem to have luck with the coconuts, we did seem to score on the Christmas Palms and some other things. The parcel seemed more grown which is good. Unlike the normal practice on the island of just bulldozing an entire lot for clearing we plan to be selective where we can. Speaking with a local landscape artist there, some trees can be tagged and hopefully moved or avoided.

Designs:

New designs were developed to maximize the views on the property and we were able to document the change in the view based on time of day, and tide. With its constant change it is truly a dynamic view.

Prep for Kickstarted launch:

Bryan and I are going to be spending a good portion of time filming the land, and capturing footage of your's truly talking about the project. This mini-film will be used for our Kickstarter launch coming soon.

Building Partnerships:

Island life depends on everyone getting along. We continue to meet great people when we are there and were able to interview a few artists who are looking forward to what Exnihilo will bring to their island.